Another interesting thing about this expansion/patch imo, is what was NOT fixed with the game: the classless, skillbased system. In other words; is there still no softcap, and no skill decay? Everyone can still be a kickass melee berserk/master archer/arch mage, only time spent grinding/macroing is the limit to how many skills people got maxed? To me this is a pretty serious flaw, strange that they are not adressing it. Or they consider it to "work as intended" maybe?
If you read the developers statement with the expansion notes, and some responses in the last month you can pretty much see they are not going to impliment a hard cap, and are only considering a soft cap at the moment. i forget where it was but its on the darkfall forums.
What this means is that NA server will end up being identical in the long run, and given that AV's record of consistant banning of players who macro/exploit is non existant, then players who want to compete will have to macro to compete. Unfortuntely this will only create the same scenario on NA that exists on EU in my opinion, although the names might be different.
While the patch , is a good move in the right direction,AV still continues to ignore some of the most glaring issues of DF that will end up driving consumers away from the game.
Another interesting thing about this expansion/patch imo, is what was NOT fixed with the game: the classless, skillbased system. In other words; is there still no softcap, and no skill decay? Everyone can still be a kickass melee berserk/master archer/arch mage, only time spent grinding/macroing is the limit to how many skills people got maxed? To me this is a pretty serious flaw, strange that they are not adressing it. Or they consider it to "work as intended" maybe?
A skill cap won't remove "god mode" because the skill cap would affect skills only and not the schools. We've had a heated debate on the DFO boards where people were suggestion a 1k point cap. 1k point cap is too shallow in DFO and all it leads to is half finished characters. The reason being is that DFO doesn't have any non-magic utility skills, which is a good thing becuase those are just repetitive space fillers IMHO.That said, every class would have to take up some type of magic for utility and in order to use that utility well they have to invest a full 100 points into armored casting. As a result, you need at least 2k points in order to have a fully developed character (even if all skills are. On top of this, it would still be possible to master all schools with a cap of only 2k assuming the person only uses 1-2 skill from a mastered magic school and therefore, due to people min-maxing since the game has a PvP focused community, other players will still complain that said individual is a "god"
In reality, anyone who takes the time to master everything is not a god at all. If you put a underskilled character up against a god but each player has the same basic healing capabilities along with comparable HP, Stam, and MP the more skilled (as player skill not leveled) character will still win. Furthermore, DFO does not have an instant skills in the game.
The one factor that makes any of the schools (archery, magic, and melee) more powerful than any other is the fact that AoE is broken (IMO) becuase it goes through walls. Let me explain, when you are inside a building a player can use a large aoe magic attack and hit the outside wall of the building,and you will still take the dmg of the spell.
Instead of forcing character customization limitations, AV is adding in diversity in other ways. They recently nerfed/balanced (depending how you look at it) unburden. Unburden is a spell that removes some of the negative penalties of wearing armor through encumbrance. At the same time, they increased the affect of being encumbered. Furthermore, the titles players and skill customizations offer characters a chance to diversity their builds further by either surpassing the cap on stats or giving your spells a different utility respectively.
For all the reasons above, I do not feel that a skill cap is needed any longer. I will still like a skill cap, but in DFO it would have to be around 2k-2.5k points (20-25 skills at 100) to allow full diversity in character development without leading to half finished characters (at less than 2k hybrid builds aren't viable), but doing so would also allow people's number one complaint, God characters ("masters" of every school), to still exist
Ex of a build with a 1.5k cap
100 melee skill
100 manna to stam
100 stam to health
100 heal self
50 Launch
50 Heal mount
100 melee mastery
100 armored casting
100 Armor Proficiency
100 x 2 magic skills for utility
100 Spirted Archer
100 Armored Archery
100 Sharp Shooter
100 Archery
100 Veteran Archer
See the lack of utility? manna to stam, stam to health, heal self, 50 launch, 50 heal mount are skills all characters, no matter what they do on the battle field, need in order to have basic survival. MM, the staple of range incase you run out of arrows, isn't even in the build.
Thanks I didn't realize that it annouced the winners And I gave an example of a physical heavy build with a 1.5 cap to show how much utility a cap of 1.5k really gives to a character.
id like to log in,but ive given up after they banned me for doing nothing. not paying 50 bucks to buy another account,so not coming back. i also won an AoC thingy so gonna try it .
as a person who held off for the NA release (seems like a great idea now) is the game in a more playable state due to this patch?
i don't think the game was ever in a bad state... it really just comes down to whether you're more into WOW-type themeparks games with a guanranteed PVE-based progression curve, or sandbox games where you can experience great gain and great loss in the space of 10 minutes and the amount of content you experience is directly tied to how fearless/cowardly you are.
holding off for the NA server was probably quite smart, though i predict it will sell out fast.
New patch is great and has added more depth to the game. It is a shame we do not have the weather but I am sure it will come along soon enough. Keep up the great work AV
amen. i've been longing for weather too. with so much attention having gone into making the world/environment feel as real as possible (full scene shadows, waving trees/grass, moon/planetary system, amazing sunrises/sunsets, rivers that wash you downstream, etc), the lack of weather has really been obvious.
Comments
If you read the developers statement with the expansion notes, and some responses in the last month you can pretty much see they are not going to impliment a hard cap, and are only considering a soft cap at the moment. i forget where it was but its on the darkfall forums.
What this means is that NA server will end up being identical in the long run, and given that AV's record of consistant banning of players who macro/exploit is non existant, then players who want to compete will have to macro to compete. Unfortuntely this will only create the same scenario on NA that exists on EU in my opinion, although the names might be different.
While the patch , is a good move in the right direction,AV still continues to ignore some of the most glaring issues of DF that will end up driving consumers away from the game.
A skill cap won't remove "god mode" because the skill cap would affect skills only and not the schools. We've had a heated debate on the DFO boards where people were suggestion a 1k point cap. 1k point cap is too shallow in DFO and all it leads to is half finished characters. The reason being is that DFO doesn't have any non-magic utility skills, which is a good thing becuase those are just repetitive space fillers IMHO.That said, every class would have to take up some type of magic for utility and in order to use that utility well they have to invest a full 100 points into armored casting. As a result, you need at least 2k points in order to have a fully developed character (even if all skills are. On top of this, it would still be possible to master all schools with a cap of only 2k assuming the person only uses 1-2 skill from a mastered magic school and therefore, due to people min-maxing since the game has a PvP focused community, other players will still complain that said individual is a "god"
In reality, anyone who takes the time to master everything is not a god at all. If you put a underskilled character up against a god but each player has the same basic healing capabilities along with comparable HP, Stam, and MP the more skilled (as player skill not leveled) character will still win. Furthermore, DFO does not have an instant skills in the game.
The one factor that makes any of the schools (archery, magic, and melee) more powerful than any other is the fact that AoE is broken (IMO) becuase it goes through walls. Let me explain, when you are inside a building a player can use a large aoe magic attack and hit the outside wall of the building,and you will still take the dmg of the spell.
Instead of forcing character customization limitations, AV is adding in diversity in other ways. They recently nerfed/balanced (depending how you look at it) unburden. Unburden is a spell that removes some of the negative penalties of wearing armor through encumbrance. At the same time, they increased the affect of being encumbered. Furthermore, the titles players and skill customizations offer characters a chance to diversity their builds further by either surpassing the cap on stats or giving your spells a different utility respectively.
For all the reasons above, I do not feel that a skill cap is needed any longer. I will still like a skill cap, but in DFO it would have to be around 2k-2.5k points (20-25 skills at 100) to allow full diversity in character development without leading to half finished characters (at less than 2k hybrid builds aren't viable), but doing so would also allow people's number one complaint, God characters ("masters" of every school), to still exist
Ex of a build with a 1.5k cap
100 melee skill
100 manna to stam
100 stam to health
100 heal self
50 Launch
50 Heal mount
100 melee mastery
100 armored casting
100 Armor Proficiency
100 x 2 magic skills for utility
100 Spirted Archer
100 Armored Archery
100 Sharp Shooter
100 Archery
100 Veteran Archer
See the lack of utility? manna to stam, stam to health, heal self, 50 launch, 50 heal mount are skills all characters, no matter what they do on the battle field, need in order to have basic survival. MM, the staple of range incase you run out of arrows, isn't even in the build.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
gratz on the AoC win xpiher xD,
also,agreed
Thanks I didn't realize that it annouced the winners
And I gave an example of a physical heavy build with a 1.5 cap to show how much utility a cap of 1.5k really gives to a character.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
id like to log in,but ive given up after they banned me for doing nothing. not paying 50 bucks to buy another account,so not coming back. i also won an AoC thingy so gonna try it .
nacitar still playing?
i don't think the game was ever in a bad state... it really just comes down to whether you're more into WOW-type themeparks games with a guanranteed PVE-based progression curve, or sandbox games where you can experience great gain and great loss in the space of 10 minutes and the amount of content you experience is directly tied to how fearless/cowardly you are.
holding off for the NA server was probably quite smart, though i predict it will sell out fast.
New patch is great and has added more depth to the game.
It is a shame we do not have the weather but I am sure it will come along soon enough.
Keep up the great work AV
amen. i've been longing for weather too. with so much attention having gone into making the world/environment feel as real as possible (full scene shadows, waving trees/grass, moon/planetary system, amazing sunrises/sunsets, rivers that wash you downstream, etc), the lack of weather has really been obvious.